Subjects: Cricket Australia’s ‘Australia Day’ decision; riots on Christmas Island; Iranian nationals charged by AFP with 250kg meth import; takedown of dark web illegal marketplace.
EO&E.......
RAY HADLEY:
The Home Affairs Minister and Member for Dickson Peter Dutton is a regular guest on the show every Thursday, he’s been doing it for several years. I'm happy to say he is back for 2021. He's on the line. Happy New Year Minister.
PETER DUTTON:
Thank you Ray. To you too and to your listeners, nice to be back.
RAY HADLEY:
Did you have a little break?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes we've had a good break. It's been relatively quiet. I didn't take any formal leave – so we had lots of bits and pieces and phone hook-ups on different issues over the Christmas period – but by-in-large it's been nice, it's been nice to spend some times with the kids and family. So back to reality pretty much now.
RAY HADLEY:
Look, just before we get to your portfolio, I've sent a message to the Prime Minister who I did speak to yesterday. When the NRL stupidly said we're going to ban the national anthem last year at Origin matches, there was intervention and Peter V'landys quickly reversed the result and there was a backlash from supporters of the National Rugby League. As you probably know today, Cricket Australia has announced that next Tuesday is now being known as January 26, not Australia Day; and they're referencing it that way. My listeners are outraged by it. Why do cricket authorities always think and sporting authorities think they've got to get involved in such matters? I don't understand it.
PETER DUTTON:
Well Ray, it's interesting when you read the finer detail – which I've done this morning – and there is an advisory committee as I understand that Cricket Australia has, which has provided this advice, but they've left it up to the discretion of the different BBL teams as to whether or not they actually adopt this recommendation. So I mean they're having each-way bets and hedging and look; it's something that that public won't cop.
Most Australians understand the different views around Australia Day, but Australia Day is our national day of celebration and we don't need to disrespect Indigenous people doing that. We need to make sure that on every day of the year we're a respectful society and we are. The trouble with these sort of token attempts is that it drives a wedge even further and it creates a bigger issue than what needs to be the case. Cricket Australia – I mean Earl Eddings I know well, I think he's a very decent person – and I'd be very surprised if Cricket Australia doesn't overturn this decision because it is divisive and it's unnecessarily so. I think they need to reflect on the decision that they've made and they need to reverse it and I hope that they can do that today.
RAY HADLEY:
Well it's probably politically incorrect to say this, but Cricket Australia don't know, Minister, whether they're Arthur or Martha? Because they passed the recommendation, as you correctly pointed out to the six BBL Clubs – and we've name those clubs here – but they said there's no [inaudible] for them to drop Australia Day terminology and they're free to promote it as they see fit. But when the governing body that funds you suggests that you, you know, really should be respectful and call it January 26, it makes it very difficult for the people who are in charge of Brisbane Heat, Perth Scorchers, Melbourne Renegades, Hobart Hurricanes, Melbourne Stars and Sydney Sixes, to in fact make a decision that flies in the face of what's been recommended by the governing body?
PETER DUTTON:
….you're right…
RAY HADLEY:
…and they're having a bet each way? In other words, they're saying: oh look, we've made this decision, however it's really a matter for them. Now, they've got to have a bit of bottle here – and there's another expression I could use which would be much coarser – but they've got to have a bit of bottle here and either go one way or the other. They've got to take responsibility for the decision or say no, it's Australia Day; one or the other.
PETER DUTTON:
Well they can say no, it's Australia Day and we've made a mistake, and then they should point to the work they're doing in local communities – including Indigenous communities, but right across the country – where they are pouring an enormous amount of money into development of junior cricket boys, girls; people of every walk of society who have been introduced to cricket, that wouldn't have been before. I think that's a great thing and that's actually the job and the most important task of Cricket Australia and those people who are, you know, genuine about getting the message of cricket out. It's a wonderful game, it's our national pastime, particularly over summer and people want to see young kids playing cricket, including Indigenous kids.
As I say, Cricket Australia has provided wonderful leadership, in the area of trying to get Indigenous kids to play cricket and that should continue. That's what should be the focus, not these sort of feel good exercises, as you say, where it's a halfway bet anyway because if you're pushing the responsibility to make the decision down on to the different clubs, then that it puts more pressure on them.
I think they're creating, frankly, more drama here – which they've done in the past – and making a bigger issue of something that they didn't need to. So I think just stick to cricket and help kids get into cricket, make sure more Australians view it on TV, it's a wonderful sport and we should celebrate that.
RAY HADLEY:
Well, I'll just point out one thing, and yes, your right; all sporting bodies spend a lot of money on making sure young people play their particular sport; but I mentioned at the top of the show, the first test match in Australia was played in 1877: 460 men, and I don't include the women in this because we have women playing cricket internationally now, but 460 men have played test cricket for Australia. Of those 460, only one Indigenous man has ever been selected to wear baggy green – that was Jason Gillespie who's a descendant on his father's side, of the Kamilaroi people.
So 144 years of test cricket – and you're an NRL fan, and we'd have AFL fans – and you would know the contribution Indigenous people have made to rugby league and to AFL over the years. I mean without those Indigenous players we'd be in a bit of strife in both rugby league and AFL.
But what I would suggest to Adam Cassidy, the Diversity Inclusion Manager of Cricket Australia, is spend a bit of time setting up cricket clinics in Indigenous communities and trying to find that second player in 144 years of Indigenous roots who can actually wear the baggy green. I'm sure they're out there, I'm sure they're there somewhere. If they can play AFL and play rugby league at the highest level, I'm telling you what, they'll play cricket to the highest level if they're given the opportunity.
PETER DUTTON:
Of course that's the case, but we live in an age where people think that these gestures are necessary – I'm happy with gestures if that's people's desire – my approach has always been to be more practical and actually do things and implement the change and put your money where your mouth is. And you're right, the money should be, and is being spent, as I say, to be fair to Cricket Australia, they are trying to identify that talent and they are, you know, signing up kids at schools all over the country, including in remote areas, but nobody's talking about that now because…
RAY HADLEY:
…yeah…
PETER DUTTON:
… you know your listeners are rightly outraged by the decision that they've made and I hope that Cricket Australia can overturn it. I think in some of their minds of Cricket Australia they've tried to do the right thing and in the end I think it's backfired.
RAY HADLEY:
Okay, let's go back to your portfolio. While I was on leave, disgraceful riots, Christmas Island. Several buildings set ablaze, detainees climbed onto the roof. How many people are on Christmas Island at the moment?
PETER DUTTON:
There are about 231 up there.
RAY HADLEY:
Someone said to me while I was away, they're blueing about Wi-Fi.
PETER DUTTON:
They weren't happy with the Wi-Fi and that's one of their main gripes. So I mean, just to be very clear, there are no refugees up there, these are people who have had their visas cancelled; outlaw motorcycle gang members, rapists, all sorts of serious criminals and they're waiting to be deported back to their country of origin. So these are pretty serious criminals and they've caused about $4 million worth of damage, which is outrageous, but these are the types of people that we're dealing with and I think it underscores the fact that we don't want them in our country.
RAY HADLEY:
Yeah. I heard a story this morning about medivac, and of course you battled long and hard with a legal battle in relation to that, but is it right that the people who came to Australia under medivac are now being released in the community in the next 24 hours?
PETER DUTTON:
Well it's cheaper for people to be in the community than it is to be at a hotel or for us to be paying for them to be in detention and if they're demonstrated not to be a threat, or that's the assessment that's been made by the experts, then it is cheaper for people to go out into the community until they can depart. That's the case with many people that are on the final departure visa for example and we think that's the cheaper way to go.
As we've discussed before, many of these people didn't receive any medical treatment, it was all about Bill Shorten at the time trying to do a deal with the Greens in bringing people into our country and as predicted at the time, it would be very hard for us to return those people and that's certainly the case now. Some of these cases are before the court or threatening to go to court at the moment.
RAY HADLEY:
By the way, we announced earlier one new case in Victoria hotel quarantine. In your home state one new case, a member of flight crew in hotel quarantine. So no cases in the community in either Queensland or Victoria.
PETER DUTTON:
That's good news.
RAY HADLEY:
Now, Australian Federal Police – I sing their praises and you know I talk to the Commissioner regularly about the work they do – two Iranian nationals charged with the alleged importation of 250 kilograms of ice; street value, 187 million. Now they were destined to be brought into Australia via New South Wales, I think into Victoria – they were found in Lakemba, in south western Sydney – so they're doing a very, very good job. International borders might be pretty much closed, but these drug smugglers are always looking for a way in aren't they?
PETER DUTTON:
Yeah and it's an interesting case because if you have a look at the way that they've tried to smuggle in some through – the police will allege – that some come in through chandeliers, others concealed in kitchen bench tops and so there's the worst example of them trying to weld it within excavators and whatnot that they were bringing in.
There's obviously a very high profit margin, and tragically Australians are very high, by world standards, very high users of methamphetamine and we've just got to try and stamp it out as best we can.
I think the real part of this story Ray, too, is that the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Border Force, ASIO officers, all of those frontline officers have been working 24/7 over Christmas and over the New Year when we've spent some downtime with our families and they've kept us safe, they have been able to detect, in this case, drugs that would have ended up in the syringes going into arms of Australian teenagers and kids and I think we're very lucky that they've done that work.
RAY HADLEY:
You've been warning me and our listeners for quite some time about what they call the dark web, the dark market, the dark net, and it's usually in relation to paedophiles sharing information, sharing images of children, but there's an Australian bloke, a 34-year-old who has been arrested in Germany with the help of our authorities, who's been operating on the so-called dark net in a marketplace which involves Bitcoin and credit cards, stolen credit cards and all sorts of other things. So it's not just about paedophilia then, this dark web or dark net?
PETER DUTTON:
No it's not. I mean we've spoken about it as the sewer of the internet and that's exactly what it is and we should talk more about it because most Australians, you know, might have heard the term, but don't really understand what's going on. I mean this is like a dark alley in a city where the police can't go and all sorts of activities take place: trading in drugs, people who run all these con rackets and steal your identity, your credit card numbers, or bank account details and passwords etc, and they sell and trade all that; gun parts, try to import firearms for terrorist groups, there are terrorist groups who do their planning on the dark web, all of these paedophile networks who connect with each other and swap images and videos etc on the dark web. So, it's just unbelievable the scope and the scale now that this has grown at.
My view always has been that if you're online or you're walking down the street, the same laws, same rules should apply. We've got some laws before the Parliament at the moment to try and give the AFP a little bit of support because it's very hard to crack these dark web sites, but I think the main message too is that the police are able to get into some of these sites now, and people who thought they were acting with complete anonymity and protection, that's no longer the case.
RAY HADLEY:
Just to give some people a view of the enormity – and I think we should have a discussion with you or the Commissioner about it – prosecutors say the judge had ordered this 34-year-old to be held in custody, we don't know his name. German investigators were assisted in their month long probe by US, Australian, British, Danish, Swiss, Ukrainian authorities and they're talking about all sorts of drugs, forged money, stolen or forged credit cards before being taken down to marketplaces as they call it, had 500,000 users, 2,400 vendors. They added to the process more than 320,000 transactions while more than 140 million Euros, AUD$220 million in Bitcoin, and there were more than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine seized as part of the operation.
So it's right across Europe, and there's been great work by the Germans, obviously with the Americans, the Australians and all the other police authorities involved, but the enormity is almost scary.
PETER DUTTON:
Well it is and when you look back down the chain, the information that they've got, or the profits that they're stealing and the money that they're trying to divert for different reasons, all that ultimately comes out of the pockets of Australians. So when you get a text from some unknown source asking you to click on this link because you've got a parcel coming and you don't know anything about it, don't do it, because ultimately these organised crime groups are harvesting all of this information that they can get from your phone and from your emails etc and they package that up and then sell it. As you said, this is just one example of, you know, the one per cent of the market and you're just talking about billions of transactions and dollars, and we've just got to try and defeat it as we do crime in the real world.
RAY HADLEY:
Now, we're broadcasting into 4RO Rockhampton and have been for about the last 35 minutes. They've just contacted me because the Prime Minister is in that part of Queensland. He appeared on 4RO this morning. He said the decision you and I have spoken about from Cricket Australia is, quote: pretty ordinary, and there should be a bit more focus on cricket and less on politics. So we're in one voice there when it comes to our condemnation of what they've done.
PETER DUTTON:
He's pretty sensible our Prime Minister.
RAY HADLEY:
Alright. Good to talk to you. I'll talk to you next Thursday. Have a good time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks Ray. Take care, mate.
[ends]
